Three days after being abruptly fired as Red Sox manager, Alex Cora took to social media to deliver a parting message.
“Boston, we will miss you,” Cora posted to Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) Tuesday morning. “Gracias for making us part of you. #RedSoxNation, you are the (heart emoji) of that team, keep believing, you really care and that’s what pushes everyone in the @RedSox to give it all day in and day out.
“With respect and love AC.”
Cora and five Red Sox coaches were fired Saturday night in Baltimore, by Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow, team president and CEO Sam Kennedy, and principal owner John Henry. It was less than a month into Cora’s eighth season as manager.
The Red Sox also announced they were ‘reassigning’ legendary Red Sox captain Jason Varitek to a non-coaching role, but sources indicated ‘Tek’ will be leaving the organization he’s been a part of since being acquired from the Seattle Mariners in July 1997.
Triple-A Worcester manager Chad Tracy has been elevated to the role of interim big-league manager, a difficult role in one of the brightest spotlights in the sports world.
Few people are as qualified to speak on the pressures of managing in Boston as Cincinnati Reds manager Terry Francona, who served as Sox skipper from 2004-11, led the Red Sox to their first two World Series championships since 1918 in 2004 and ‘07, and managed Cora and Breslow during their playing careers.
“It is (different),” Francona told Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman on the New York Post’s baseball podcast, “The Show” on Tuesday. “A lot of people compare it to New York, but it’s not. You know, New York’s so big. Boston’s more like a town, and everybody knows everything. Like when you call up a kid from Triple-A, they already know who he is.
“And they’re dying to love their team, but you better produce. There’s just so much passion, so much interest, that there’s some nights when the manager goes home with a headache. That’s just the way it is. It’s a great place to be a part of baseball, but it’s not the easiest place to be a part of baseball.”
Red Sox legend and Hall of Fame pitcher Pedro Martinez also weighed in Tuesday, hours after the Philadelphia Phillies fired manager Rob Thomson and their president of baseball operations, Dave Dombrowski, confirmed that he had offered the job to Cora, who respectfully declined.
“I believe Alex Cora did such a strong job in Boston that anything that went wrong was always going to fall on him,” Martinez posted to X. “Boston is a city that can’t stand being out of the hunt… just like Philadelphia. I would call it the curse of the East.”
“Alex Cora and Rob Thomson are both victims of their success,” Martinez added in a follow-up post. “They did so well and both organizations gave so much to them to handle, that when things stopped clicking, they were the ones to blame.”
